The BDSM gag is not a modern invention. It is a living echo of the oldest method of human control — the removal of speech. Across history, those in power have understood the primal effect of silencing the voice. The mouth is where freedom hides. The tongue speaks rebellion. The lips tell stories that can disrupt, escape, or manipulate. The moment a Dominant chooses to close that mouth, they are reaching across millennia to assert ancient rule.

In every ancient culture, there was an understanding — spoken or unspoken — that to bind someone by the neck was not simply to restrain them. It was to name them. To own them. To say, this one belongs. Long before the modern collar became a fetish object or a lifestyle symbol, it was something else entirely. In the medieval world, iron collars were used to mark slaves, criminals, and prisoners of war. In religious orders, the collar became a sign of service and submission to